Friday, August 12, 2016

"Same old, same old. How the hipster aesthetic is taking over the world"

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This Guardian article by Kyle Chayka is very important. It is an update of an earlier article in The Verge. Maybe he reads my blog (joking), as his theme reflects a few recent posts here. His insight into what I will call a faux-authentic aesthetic is superb. Reclaimed industrial retro minimalism carefully-curated for the interiors of hipster joints right across the westernised world to all look exactly the same.

There is a massive difference between reflecting and honouring an actual lived heritage, and merely acquiring the appearance of heritage as a momentary fashion statement. I have a scythe on my kitchen wall because, from at least as long ago as 1750, my ancestors mowed the field I built our house on.

Frankly, the thought of skinny-jeaned hipsters Instagramming while eating avocado toast on a roughly-sawn bit of original shipyard sleeper makes my blood boil. Belfast is now coming down with this kind of high-class nonsense. As is Edinburgh, and Bristol, and probably all of our honourable cities. The people of Belfast used to actually sweat and make stuff, now their middle-class grandchildren get anxious about sourdough bread, feta cheese and rocket. Rocket? We used to BUILD AEROPLANES.

Learn how to turn a spade, fill a wheelbarrow, know the difference between a longtail and square shovel. Admire the workmanship of a real stone wall. A grape isn't to be cut in half for your poncy lunchtime salad served on a slate by the weedy beardy guy in the baseball hat - it's for hoakin prootas by folk who understand the seasons, the earth, as did every single generation that has gone before. Until now.

Heritage is not a style accessory. I am glad the hipster aesthetic is being exposed for what it is - the Emperor's (salvaged and tastefully upcycled) nearly-new clothes.

(pic above is some place in London).

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